laid off = optimisation
In your civilian life you are nothing more than a drunk in the gutter, but here you command a battalion of drunks and, they all carry assault rifles. They will die for you. Do not dream of any steady position in peace-time. Drunks are put into their own unit so that the embarrassment cannot come crawling back to high command. A commendation is all you can expect. The city cannot pay its own electric bill, what do you want from it?